Living in the Shallowsby Tani HanesGENRE: New Adult/Romance
​

Aileen is a bilingual music student with a chronic case of poverty. She gets a dream job as an interpreter for a boy band making a movie in Japan. Having spent her life as a sheltered, shy only child in the rarefied world of classical piano, she is utterly unprepared for this new world, these boys and their frank physicality and openness. Theo, especially, the known playboy and unrepentant flirt of the group, makes her uncomfortable in a way she's never felt before, and ultimately Aileen, or Tinker Bell, as she's known to the boys, has to decide if she's ready to leave the sidelines and become a participant in her own life.

​The laughter and talking had stopped as soon as they entered the room and saw me. They stood, as if unsure what to do. The boy with the long brown hair recovered his composure first and held out his hand."Hello, I'm Theo," he said in a deep voice that didn’t quite match his young boy look. He had a British accent, too, though it was different from Betsey's. He added a smile as we shook hands, and I saw gray eyes and dimples to go with the perfect teeth.The blond boy, whose eyes were a dark, rich brown, held out his hand next. "I'm Ronan, nice to meet you." For a moment, my jet-lagged brain refused to process the words because his accent was so thick. I desperately flipped back through all the movies I'd seen, trying to place it. Irish. This boy was Irish. Just as I was wrapping my mind around that, the redhead stepped forward."Hi, I'm Gethin, pleasure to meet you." He, too, had a lovely smile, but his eyes were green. And his accent was different, kind of British, but more sing-song, with elongated vowels, like English on a graceful roller coaster.Was there something in my coffee besides coffee?The curly haired boy stepped forward to introduce himself. I stared at him warily. He had stunning dark blue eyes, which contrasted with his brown skin, and the longest eyelashes I'd ever seen on a boy. Given what had come out of the other boys' mouths when they'd spoken, if he started speaking Icelandic or produced yet another English accent, I was going to jump right out the window.He held out his hand, and as I reached for it, he said, "My name is Matthew, and I'm very happy to meet you." I nearly yanked my hand back. This boy was Scottish, sounded just like Professor McGonagall from Harry Potter, and looked like he should be breaking hearts on the Nigerian soccer team.

​

My name is Tani Hanes, and I am a 51 year old substitute teacher. Im from central California and am a recent transplant to New York City. The most important things to know about me are that I'm punctual, I love grammar and sushi, and I'm very intolerant of intolerance. The least important things to know about me are that I like to knit and I couldn't spell "acoustic" for 40 years. I've wanted to write since I was ten, and I finally did it. If you want to write, don't wait as long as I did, it's pointless, and very frustrating!

There’s this band, a very, very popular band, who announced a while back that they were going on “hiatus”—my high school and junior high girls (I’m a substitute teacher) were so upset about this. One girl actually cried while hugging me when I told her what a “hiatus” was! I work in a very small district, and have known all of these young ladies since they were very small, as I sub all grades; hence the hugging and opening up to me—we’re very close!

It got me thinking that maybe I could write something for us, a sort of fantasy wish-fulfillment kind of thing, about a boyband, a lot like the real-life band, only better. As in they’d really, really love each other, there would be no question of behind-the-scenes snarkiness. As in they’d be even more attractive, if that was possible; it was, as evidenced by my character Matthew, who is too beautiful for this earth, has a heart of platinum, and aScottish accent. As in they’d love the heroine, no holds barred, with all of their lovely, huge hearts. And as in they’d never, like,ever, go on hiatus.

And seven books later, here we are! Only the first few have been published yet, depending on when you’re reading this, but once my characters got on paper, they really took on a life of their own, became living, breathing people almost. And they gotnaughty. Originally, everyone in the UK Crush series was a teenager, but once things started to happen, once I knew how they spoke (who knew Tink would swear so much?), and what kinds of shenanigans they were going to get up to, I had to age them up a bit, to college-age, kind of like the real life band.

AsI wrote, the story became more and more clear. I’d get ideas for what I wanted to happenat some point, and I’d write it down, in no particular order, just to make sure it didn’t get lost. It was kind of like pruning a rose bush; the more you prune, the more obvious it becomes what your next move has to be.

I think I did what I set out to do. My baby betas (my nickname for my teen readers) are happy, anyway, and that was my goal.

Actually, I wrote nearly all of these seven books while I was substitute teaching at the local high school, if you can believe it lol! I understand that most teachers aren't going to leave quantum physics for a sub, so unfortunately there were many days where I didn't have much to do; because of this, many of my students' names made it into the books as peripheral characters. If I'd been talking to Darnay, Dr. Darnay became a character, and if I'd just told Donovan to get to work on his Spanish, Donovan the security guard was born. And I could get quick feedback from the kids about plot points, too, it was actually loads of fun!

Reply

bernie wallace

3/20/2017 06:16:04 pm

What books are you looking to read in 2017? Thanks for the giveaway. I hope that I win.

I honestly haven't had time to look at anything! But there's a new writer out there, Anna Kaling, who's marvelous! Nothing published yet, but I've read all her stuff and I CAN'T WAIT to get the actual books!

Reply

Victoria

3/20/2017 09:30:43 pm

Great post - I enjoyed reading it. Thanks for sharing :)

Reply

Nikolina

3/21/2017 02:04:40 pm

I am really enjoying following this tour, thank you for all the great blog posts and excerpts!

I have really enjoyed following this tour and look forward to checking out this book!

Reply

Donna B

4/9/2017 11:12:44 am

What writing process do you use?

Reply

lacey waters

4/9/2017 03:08:51 pm

thanks :)

Reply

Donna B

4/10/2017 06:21:00 am

What can we expect from you in the future?

Reply

Kathy Davis

4/21/2017 07:25:54 pm

The book sounds very interesting. I added the book to my TBR list.

Reply

Bridgett Wilbur

4/22/2017 07:23:10 am

Your cover is amazing and I would love to read your book.

Reply

Sarah L

4/23/2017 01:04:21 am

Looks like an interesting book.
Thanks for the contest.

Reply

Michele

4/24/2017 07:24:49 am

I love any book that has music in it.. This one has a music student yes.. also the cover is lovely

Reply

Bridgett Wilbur

4/25/2017 06:04:13 am

I am looking forward to reading your book.

Reply

Audrey Stewart

4/25/2017 03:09:04 pm

I was just introduced to Tani and her work. I am excited to read her work.

Reply

Jerry Marquardt

4/25/2017 09:18:38 pm

I would like to give thanks for all your really great writings, including Living In the Shallows. I wish the best in keeping up the good work in the future. Thanks for throwing the Blog Tour and Giveaway.